@Vorn and others:It should be pointed out that if you are doing physical exercise, you HAVE to adjust your food intake. As you say, it became a lot easier to do your exercise when you'd eaten more. Obviously, you shouldn't eat THAT MUCH more on a regular basis, but you have to make sure your body has the calories to regenerate its muscle tissue and to keep you fuelled through the workout, otherwise, you risk causing yourself some bad bad things.

Think of it this way: Losing weight/ fat is a LOT easier when you have muscle, because more muscle mass encourages more energy burning. If you have a combined goal of gaining muscle AND losing weight and you're doing a lot of strenuous activity like climbing or weight lifting, consider not trying to lose weight the first few months and rather focusing on building the muscle which will later help you lose the fat. Still count your kcals and maybe, when adjusted for exercise, keep it a couple hundred below maintaining weight.

If you get dizzy during exercise, things are Not Right and you shouldn't keep going unless you have a professional with you. The whole "WE RAN UNTIL WE PUKED AND PASSED OUT AND THEN WE RAN SOME MOOOORRRREE!" thing that you hear about boot camps and such (300 comes to mind, where they had a lot of stories like that) is not really helpful in my opinion. Sure, that might work great for them, but people who are doing that are usually accompanied by professionals and they EAT CONSTANTLY. Like, two to three times the normal recommended daily kcal count.

EDIT: My Fitness Pal doesn't count calories on weight lifting and other non-cardio workouts, which is bullshit. A good 45 minute lifting session will require between 600-1000 kcals, depending on the intensity. If you're doing MFP and keeping to a 1200 kcal "net" count, you have about 600 kcals left for your body to use for normal day-to-day functioning, which is INSANE.

I know - doing currently -500kcal from the daily recommendation adjusted to the exercise, with enough carbs to "recharge". In the first couple of weeks I didn't adjust for sports, I wanted to start with a nice crash, but in the long run I don't want to lose too much muscle mass. I have been going climbing twice a week pretty regularly, in addition to cycling to work etc., so factoring in the winter imposed lack of "coincidental exercise", this is not a massive increase in the amount of sports.

Also, from the point of view of climbing performance, right now it's far more important for me to lose lard than to gain muscle. Every kilo of lard makes things more difficult and I'm willing to bet that losing a kilo of lard makes me more good as a whole than gaining a kilo of muscle at this exact point.

@Allana - oh man, I know that feeling. A few years back when i was still in school and didn't have much money, I adopted my ex's eating habits since he knew how to eat pretty cheaply. unfortunately, it was also high in shit high-calorie easy meals like mac-n-cheese and since I also didn't not his metabolism, I gained a ton of weight. If you can't stay away from bad foods if they're in the house (which I personally cannot, if I want to avoid them, they can't come in) maybe talk to your boyfriend and ask him if he'd be willing to keep certain things out of the house to support you. Another way to do it would be to keep a food journal so that if you're starting to fall on the willpower, you can look in your journal and visually see how many calories you've already ingested.

@Alanna, Argos, that's been quite hard for me as well, one of my problems has been controlling calories when I don't cook for myself in the evening. My partner tends to make massive evening meals, and has been breastfeeding on and off for the last decade so eats extra to compensate... she's now trying really hard to lose weight as well so is counting calories, we have to try and coordinate so I know roughly what she's planning so I don't eat to much during the day. We've had to agree on limiting things like cheesecakes as she has always tended to give out ridiculous portion sizes and I have limited self control these things.

At one point last year though I think she was trying to fatten me up because I weighed less than her for the first time ever and that annoyed her quite a bit!

Work is another major problem. There's a thing called the Filing Cabinet of Shame in our office which always has either cake, chocolate, sweets or donuts on it. As well as that, working for a supermarket chain there are often samples around and there's a chap in the team who seems to manage to procure sackfuls of chocolate from the buyers and hands them out like a crack dealing Willy Wonka. Bastard.

I think awareness helps a massive amount though, tracking and becoming mindful of what you're ingesting helps build willpower and a feeling of control. I have also found how much better I feel when I'm not stuffing myself, if I keep reminding myself that I'm often tempted to eat out of habit rather than hunger (like Vorn's candy example above!) or genuine desire. Hard though not too just eat all the things.

Another thing you can try, which you might get bored with if you're not creative, is to try and make major meals mostly veggie based, making sure that you're using nutrient-dense low-cal foods, that was when you do eat some work snacks or whatever, you actually have some unused calories to allot to that. Thing with that is you don't want to do just bland salads and get bored. But I remember when I was at school, if I *really* wanted a boba milk tea or something, I'd have a salad with boiled eggs that was worth like 200cals, and the milk tea, which was worth 300-400, so with the two combined I'd have a regular calories meal. And while the tea was void of nutrition, the salad covered for a lot of the key vitamins I needed, and the eggs provided some protein.

The other tip, which I'm sure either I or someone else has mentioned before, is to chew everything slowly and thoroughly. That way each piece of a treat feels more satisfying than if you inhaled it, so you're just as content with a small slice of cake than a big one.

I left work early today because I felt a little dizzy and weird, checked my blood pressure in the pharmacy a couple times over a few hours and it was high. Like, 150/96 high. I'm fairly shaken up. I've also yet to do anything toward taking care of myself. Though, now, I think I'm entirely and finally done w/ soda. And bacon. I had bacon and bacon alone for breakfast today, that probably wasn't the best option.I've had a couple 20-oz-water-bottles worth of water so far today. I don't feel comfortable doing any major activity right now, so I'm at least finally watching the DDPYoga videos to get an idea of what I'll be doing (hopefully tomorrow, if I think I'm okay). Like, I'm scared but I feel aimless. It's a common feeling for me, sadly. I have a lot of excuses, a big ol list. The top thing on it, for sure, is work. I work retail full-time, so I'm on my feet 8 hours a day, five days a week. Plus I don't really have set hours and it tends to make it hard for me to start good habits. I'm off most Mondays... but not all of them. I usually work late morning or midday shifts... but sometimes I work early and sometimes 1:30pm-10:30pm (which really fucks up my week).It's taken me about 4 hours to type just this. I don't know why.

That sounds really seriously not good. I am not an expert in the slightest, but should you be wondering if maybe that was more serious than you're treating it? Like heart attack serious? Not that you want to incur health care costs as an American in getting it checked out just in case. But maybe you want to get it checked out just in case.

@brittanica: Planned Parenthood clinics near you (if there are ones) may be able to charge on a sliding scale, and provide general healthcare as well as family planning. Please get checked out. And I say this as someone who does the whole "I'm a guy, I don't go to the doctor" thing far too often.

@ britt, Jesus, hope you feel better soon. If you've cut out a huge amount of sugar though, I wonder if there's a reaction to that? Though it certainly sound like something that needs medical advice.

I feel off the calories wagon this week a bit (Wednesday was a bloody weird day at work, we were on the news all day and I kept seeing my boss on the telly... we needed cake for that)

But I managed to keep running and mostly walking, legs are killing me now but feeling consistently better than I have done for probably 15 years... like most days are good ones rather than say one day every six months...

If anyone's interested, this is what our evil communist health service gives us to try and keep money out of the hands of private healthcare companies although the government is doing its best to destroy it: couch to 5k plan

I took my mom to the gym I go to and she loved it. As it is, she has osteoporosis and isn't active in the slightest, which causes her weight to gain and increased depression. Over the summer we walked a lot, but Canadian winters + icy sidewalks + lady with osteoporosis = NO. So I brought her along for a trial thing and think I've sold her on it. We went on the treadmill and, after some talking, I've convinced her to slowly build up her walking goal to 5 miles a day. Also as a gift, I gave her my fitbit zip and bought myself the fitbit flex, so I can track my sleep and just forget about it. Plus hey, I prefer bracelets. :)

Feel good. And she feels like she's starting somewhere which is good. We're fitbit friends now so I can look at her stats and further motivate her.

Down to 78,6kg today (started from 81,5kg in January) which makes me a happy camper. Well, a slightly grumpy camper, since the -500kcal does make me feel a bit annoyed all the time. I'm currently in that weird limbo where all the cravings for pizza, beer and so forth have vanished, but the automatic thoughts haven't. As in coming home from work and going "aaargh veggies and cottage cheese for dinner, I could really go for beer/pizza" and then having that *record scratch* moment that, actually, no: the thought of a greasy pizza or something like that was even a bit disgusting, and instead of beer what I wanted was to leave the house. After engorging myself on vegetables like an elephant I was all happy and cozy. What's interesting for me is to observe the disconnect between the automatic thoughts of wanting to eat something unhealthy whenever I'm tired, stressed or frustrated, and the fact of not really wanting it in a more visceral level. Interesting to see if those automatic ideas will start to vanish when they are not indulged.

After a while, I think those automatic cravings will at least lessen in frequency. They did for me, anyway. Whenever I DO indulge more than once in a week, though, I can feel the craving creeping back in. The reward-centres of the brain fire up and go "OH! That was fun! More of that!" REALLY quickly for me.

I'm staying steady around 73-75 these days, which is all right. Over time, I'd like to get to 80 kg keeping my level of tone. That way, I should be able to quickly drop down a few kg and get super-toned and athletic-looking if I need to for a job. All I'd have to do is do some upkeep weight lifting and replace the rest of my weight regime with running, cycling and HIIT.

I bought Men's Health "Big Book of Exercises" recently, and it's pretty great for weight and bodyweight training. Explains a lot of elements of exercise in clear terms, tidies up some common misconceptions and gives you a massive library of exercises you've probably never done before so you can build loads of unique programs for yourself.

Being gluten free now, I have this terrible tendency to freak the fuck out when I see something yummy labeled as gluten free. It's stupid, because for years I've been trying to keep myself on a low carb diet, and rice flour and sugar are still carbs. This did no prevent me from getting both a scone and a sickeningly sweet blondie from Whole Foods yesterday. They were soooooo delicious, but after eating them I felt horrendous. I was full, but my body was still craving protien or SOMETHING ANYTHING to counteract the insane amount of quick sugars I'd gobbled down.

And that's something about eating well. I used to eat fries with mozzerella cheese and brown gravy just about EVERY DAY. Now, even half an order makes me feel gross. After eating well for long enough you really do train your brain. Your body starts to recognise healthy food as GOOD food and unhealthy food as BAD food and the associations work their way into your reward system and you start to crave the foods that make you FEEL good as opposed to only TASTING good. Even the tasting part starts to change.

A real issue that you men have as an advantage on women is: MENSTRUAL CRAVINGS.

Anyone have any suggestions for dealing with that? I used to only get my period like, three times a year. Now my cycle has finally kind of normalized a bit, and I get my period almost every month, and it's INSANE! I have no coping mechanisms for this!!! Seriously, men... you've no idea.

Oh man, menstrual cravings are THE WORST. The best way I've found to deal with them is get those little Trader Joe's dark chocolate vars that come in like a pack of 3, and when I get a graving, break off ONE square and suck on it until it's gone. No biting and eating it in like a second, savor that little square and make it last. That way I can have multiple squares throughout the day and not have piled on too much crap. Thing with me is, when I have menstrual cravings, I can have a whole chocolate bar and an hour later I'll crave a whole other bar, or I can savor a little square and feel at least somewhat satisfied for sugar.

Normally my cravings revolve around pizza and Sri Lankan food and it just so happens that two great places are within walking distance. ESPECIALLY the Sri Lankan bakery. Six veggie samosas and three mutton buns for $3. What's worse is, with menstrual cravings, I would go and get the samosas, eat them as I'm leaving the bakery, notice the pizza place, and then WALK IN AND HAVE A SLICE. Horrible.

But today I just hit a chocolate craving and I think I'm going to make some chocolate banana avocado pudding, which I don't feel terribly bad for eating. Basically 1 banana, 1/2 avocado, 1tbsp of cocoa, and a 1tsp of honey. Run it through a blender or food processor until it looks like pudding. Eat and enjoy.

But it's not even cravings with me, it's automatic thoughts, something in the vein of "in this mood I'm supposed to want to cram a bag of chips in my face / go for a beer", but when I stop to think about it, I really don't want to. For me it's a markedly different thing from the very visceral "if I don't get salted peanuts NAO I'm going to stab a nun" craving :)

I get that. It's physical habit versus psychological/chemical habit. It's why I can go weeks, even months without a cigarette but when I'm out with friends and drinking I start to want a smoke.

I've probably put myself in this state with coffee. My daily "getting started" ritual has coffee as a central part of it, that even if it occurs in the afternoon on a hot day, I still want my two cups of Joe.